Session 3

Whatever happened to wonder?

technology has wooed us perhaps to kill us. The screen has replaced the heavens...Do you agree?
there is pros and cons to how the world has grown because of technology but has it damped our imagination at all? What do you think?
when some Africans were asked why they think they see more miracles than the western society does, they answer: "we have doctors".
Do you think we need imagination to hear the voice of God?

'If you describe a kiss in sheer physical terms, it sounds repulsive. Two people press their moist, creased facial orifices together, cinch tight the sphincter muscles to draw the flesh around the orifice into a bulbous mound, and exchange saliva and breath. It takes imagination to transmute that into an act of intimacy and eroticism. It takes the power to see beyond and beneath the stark physicality of it. Those who look at the stars and see only dead rock and gases are like men who have spent their lives analyzing kisses and have never kissed anyone.
We do that; Christians do, churches do. Look at Communion. Communion is tasting death and tasting life.
Aren't you left hungry and thirsty, both in reality (a tiny piece of bread when you probably didn't have breakfast and that yummy juice that you could glug a full cup full) and spiritually (wanting to know and experience all that the body and the blood do for us)?

A youth group was asked if they think the church is more like Indiana Jones or a How to Sew Instructional video. Can you guess what they answered? How can we align with God to facilitate his kingdom on earth?

The God we think we know is bigger. We know so little, really.

Session 2

Our job is not to keep God from embarrassment.

Falling into God's hands is scary but not falling into His hands is terrifying.
In Narnia, Lucy asks beaver if Aslan the lion is safe. Beaver simply says, no, but he's good.

A safe God:
asks nothing of us
gives nothing to us
never drives us to our knees in hungry desperation
never sets us on our feet in fierce, fixed determination
never makes us bold
never asks that we embarrass ourselves
never says anything besides greeting card slogans
helps us escape reality

Would you agree? Look over the list again and ask yourself if you would like that. The above reminds me of a couch 'potato'. A slob. A safe God is what many also fear... a boring religion. The opposite is seen in the many Biblical stories, one in particular: Gideon. He was asked to tear down all the idols in his community. He was so scared he did it at night. He was asked to fight an opposing army with no weapons and only 300 men. God made them victorious. Here, God asked, gave desperation and determination, gave boldness and was engulfed with real life, real battles.

Some call on God like calling an errand boy, to make golf games pleasant.
But do we worship him? Die for him? Believe the cross is for us?
God's main business is not making sure we get a close parking spot to the mall because the colour bedsheet we want is on sale - miracle! - but is making us holy: where both the kindness and sternness of God is needed.

Session 1

When Jesus walked with some of his disciples after his resurrection, their heart burned within them even though they did not know it was him (Luke 24:13-35). Why is it then that we start to live for Jesus and offer ourselves for his work, we get faint hearted and burnt out? Other words are inner deadness, spiritual sleepwalking, chronic stuckness.
We don't want to go back but sometimes, we are not very motivated to go forward.

There is a place I'll call Borderland in Africa where there are no laws. It is claimed or defended by anybody. Someone could shoot another, rob another and beat another, and the guards on either side of the borders watch unmovingly. The believers borderland is seen as this: temptation to sleep when we are called to pray, go shopping when we are called to fight, boast about free gifts, loose lipped with others secrets and tight lipped about the gospel. 'At times, the gap between the god we want and the God who wants us is vast beyond bridging.' This is a quote from a book I am reading by Mark Buchanan called Your God is Too Safe.

God is holy.
Do you dread God? Do you have a longing to flee, a love of distance, a desire to see God but only in a silhouette instead of face to face? Would you rather hear echoes instead of the thunder and whispers of his voice?
I say no to these but is that the deep truth of my heart?
Jesus is unpredictable.
Follow me? Where? Do you have hotel arrangements? What about travel insurance? What do I need to pack? What kind of clothes should I bring?

Some get angrier at missing a bus than at children going hungry or killing others in Africa.
Some get more pleasure at winning a game of Monopoly than seeing a drug addict delivered and coming to church.
Some get into relationships that deepen rather than remove our loneliness.
Some cry when we run out of Oxy pads while we blink and look away over an event like 911.
Some get impatient with reading a child a bed time story but waste hours watching TV or banter on the phone about nothing at all.
Some read more of People magazine, or look over and over in Ikea catalogues rather than reading the Bible.

What are some things that tick you about our every day life?
Do you dread God?
Are you in borderland? What keeps you there? What draws you out?
Is your heart burning within you?

I'm back...it has been a while...
a quick update:
- going to LA for an outreach was amazing
- I went to bible college this last fall and grew in knowlegde and GRACE of my Lord, Jesus Christ
- I have dreds...since the last week in August
- Christmas was awesome
- I am in school again
- the days have been good
- my emotions have been like a roller coaster (nothing new under the moon)
- still working my 4 jobs
- got in touch with some old friends
- my sister is graduating this year and I am hoping to be with her (in Saskatchewan)
- I'm hoping to keep ya'll posted
HAPPY NEW YEAR